Reducing cybersecurity risk level of a portfolio of companies using a cybersecurity risk multiplier

ABSTRACT

A multiplier is utilized to quantify a cybersecurity risk level of a portfolio of entities (e.g., companies) and enable actions to mitigate that quantified risk. In doing so, features or attributes of one or more companies in a portfolio are compared to features or attributes of one or more companies that experienced an adverse cybersecurity event (e.g. a data breach). Further, a degree of dependency, such as a matrix of a number of shared vendors and the proximity of those vendors to the companies, can be measured between (1) portfolio companies and one or more companies that experienced a cybersecurity event, and/or (2) the portfolio companies themselves to better quantify the risk. That is, to more meaningfully analyze a cybersecurity event that occurred at one or more companies and better predict the likelihood of an occurrence at portfolio companies, embodiments can determine an n-degree interdependency between companies.

CROSS REFERENCE TO RELATED PATENT APPLICATIONS

The present application is a continuation of U.S. patent applicationSer. No. 16/019,243 filed Jun. 26, 2018, entitled “REDUCINGCYBERSECURITY RISK LEVEL OF A PORTFOLIO OF COMPANIES USING ACYBERSECURITY RISK MULTIPLIER”; which is a continuation of U.S. patentapplication Ser. No. 15/663,541 filed Jul. 28, 2017, entitled “REDUCINGCYBERSECURITY RISK LEVEL OF A PORTFOLIO OF COMPANIES USING ACYBERSECURITY RISK MULTIPLIER”; and is related to commonly-owned U.S.patent application Ser. No. 15/198,560 filed Jun. 30, 2016, and entitled“NON-INTRUSIVE TECHNIQUES FOR DISCOVERING AND USING ORGANIZATIONALRELATIONSHIPS”, the disclosures of which are hereby incorporated hereinby reference in their entirety.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The disclosed technology generally relates to reducing a cybersecurityrisk level of a portfolio of companies. In particular, the disclosedtechnology relates to identifying common attributes between companiesand their relevance to a cybersecurity risk for portfolio companies,quantifying the risk level using a multiplier, and enabling steps toreduce the risk level.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

A manager of a portfolio of companies may be interested in understandingthe portfolio's aggregate cyber security risk level because, onceunderstood, the manager can take action to manage or reduce that risk.Doing so can be advantageous in a number of scenarios where, e.g., aninsurance company underwriting cyber-insurance needs to minimize thechance of catastrophic loss due to correlated risk, or an organizationneeds to minimize its exposure to breach or business interruptionstemming from its vendors (e.g., third party vendor risk management).Examples of such adverse cybersecurity events include Distributed Denialof Service (DDoS) and the like, which lead to significant businessinterruption.

Currently available technologies for managing a portfolio'scybersecurity risk level suffer from certain drawbacks. For example,while certain technologies determine how diverse a set of companies maybe, they do not provide meaningful information with regard to whetherthe companies' shared features actually influence or are indicative ofthe occurrence of a cybersecurity risk event. In other words, knowntechnologies do not meaningfully inform a user of a portfolio's reducedor increased correlated risk of experiencing a cybersecurity event.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

In view of the foregoing, inventive concepts encompass a system andmethod for utilizing a multiplier to quantify a cybersecurity risk levelof a portfolio of entities and enable fictions to mitigate thatquantified risk. For example, according to one embodiment, a method forreducing a cybersecurity risk level of a portfolio of companies isprovided. According to such an embodiment, at least one company thatexperienced a cybersecurity risk event during a certain time period isidentified. Also, at least one attribute common to the at least oneidentified company that experienced the cybersecurity risk event and aplurality of companies in the portfolio is identified. A degree ofmutuality of the at least one attribute is also identified. Acybersecurity risk multiplier for the portfolio is generated based on(1) a number of the identified attributes, (2) a number of the pluralityof companies having the identified attributes, and (3) degrees ofmutuality of the number of identified attributes. Further, a portfoliocybersecurity risk level is generated that is a function ofcybersecurity risk multiplier, and one or more tools are enabled forreducing the generated portfolio cybersecurity risk level.

According to another embodiment, a system for reducing a cybersecurityrisk level of a portfolio of companies is provided. The system comprisesa memory communicatively coupled to one or more processors configured toexecute a number of steps where, e.g., at least one company thatexperienced a cybersecurity risk event during a certain time period isidentified. Also, at least one attribute common to the at least oneidentified company that experienced the cybersecurity risk event and aplurality of companies in the portfolio is identified. A degree ofmutuality of the at least one attribute is also identified. Acybersecurity risk multiplier for the portfolio is generated based on(1) a number of the identified attributes, (2) a number of the pluralityof companies having the identified attributes, and (3) degrees ofmutuality of the number of identified attributes. Further, a portfoliocybersecurity risk level is generated that is a function ofcybersecurity risk multiplier, and one or more tools are enabled forreducing the generated portfolio cybersecurity risk level.

The foregoing has outlined rather broadly the features and technicaladvantages of the present disclosure in order that the detaileddescription of the disclosure that follows may be better understood.Additional features and advantages of the embodiments will be describedhereinafter which form the subject of the claims of the presentdisclosure. It should be appreciated by those skilled in the art thatthe conception and specific embodiment disclosed may be readily utilizedas a basis for modifying or designing other structures for carrying outthe same purposes of the present disclosure. It should also be realizedby those skilled in the art that such equivalent constructions do notdepart from the scope of the present disclosure as set forth in theappended claims. The novel features which are believed to becharacteristic of the embodiments, both as to its organization andmethod of operation, together with further objects and advantages willbe better understood from the following description when considered inconnection with the accompanying figures. It is to be expresslyunderstood, however, that each of the figures is provided for thepurpose of illustration and description only and is not intended as adefinition of the limits of the present disclosure.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE FIGURES

For a more complete understanding of the present disclosure, referenceis now made to the following descriptions taken in conjunction with theaccompanying figures, in which:

FIG. 1 shows aspects of a system that quantifies a cybersecurity risklevel of a portfolio of companies according to an embodiment;

FIG. 2 shows aspects of a method for quantifying a cybersecurity risklevel of a portfolio of companies according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3A shows a relationship between a risk score and number of sharedattributes according to an embodiment;

FIG. 3B shows a relationship between the likelihood a company willexperience a cybersecurity risk event and a number of attributes itshares with a company that experienced a cybersecurity risk eventaccording to an embodiment;

FIG. 4A shows a probability density function of multiplier values forportfolios of companies with different counts for co-occurrence of cyberdata breach over two-year time period according to an embodiment;

FIG. 4B shows a probability density function of multiplier values forportfolios of companies with different counts for co-occurrence of cyberdata breach over one-year time period according to an embodiment;

FIG. 5 shows multiplier values as a function of average cybersecurityrisk score according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6A illustrates clusters of common attributes among companies forportfolio companies that have a high multiplier value and a low totalscore according to an embodiment;

FIG. 6B illustrates clusters of common attributes among companies forportfolio companies that have a low multiplier value and a high totalscore according to an embodiment; and

FIG. 7 shows the probability density functions of multiplier values fordifferent numbers of common attributes according to an embodiment.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

Inventive concepts utilize a multiplier to quantify a cybersecurity risklevel of a portfolio of entities (e.g., companies) and enable actions tomitigate that quantified risk. In doing so, features or attributes ofone or more companies in a portfolio are compared to features orattributes of one or more companies that experienced an adversecybersecurity event (e.g. a data breach). Further, a degree ofdependency, such as a matrix of a number of shared vendors and thesimilarity (i.e. quantity and type of shared features) of those vendorsto the companies, can be measured between (1) portfolio companies andone or more companies that experienced a cybersecurity event, and/or (2)the portfolio companies themselves, to better quantify the risk. Thatis, to more meaningfully analyze a cybersecurity event that occurred atone or more companies and better predict the likelihood of an occurrenceat portfolio companies, embodiments can determine an n-degreeinterdependency between companies. In other words, embodiments considernot only a number of attributes common to companies (i.e., afirst-degree dependency) but also a number of features shared by thecommon attributes themselves (i.e., a second-degree dependency).

As an example, two or more companies can be said to have a first-degreedependency if they use the same web host. On the other hand, two or morecompanies may use different web hosts, but the web hosts use softwarefrom the same upstream vendor in providing their services to the two ormore companies. In that case, the two or more companies can be said tohave a second-degree dependency because, while they do not use the sameweb host, they indirectly receive software from the same upstreamvendor.

Analyzing degrees of dependency between a company that experienced acybersecurity event and companies in a portfolio, or between companiesin the portfolio yet to experience such an event, facilitates treatingthe portfolio itself as part of a network, where the impact of anoccurrence of a cybersecurity event at one point in the network (e.g.,at one company) can be measured by its likely propagation through thenetwork (e.g., to other companies in the portfolio). This can directlydepend on the degree of dependency between the company that experiencedthe cybersecurity event and the portfolio companies.

A machine learning model is utilized to identify the most significantcybersecurity events and the most significant interdependencies betweencompanies to predict an occurrence of a cybersecurity risk event.According to an embodiment, a supervised machine learning model istrained over a time period where, during the training period,cybersecurity events and statistically significant shared features andinterdependencies are identified, prioritized, ranked, and/or assignedcorresponding weight. This data can be aggregated to form feature setsand one or more algorithms can be executed to generate a multiplier,which mathematically correlates to a likelihood that one or moreportfolio companies will experience a cybersecurity risk event based ontheir relationship to a company or companies that experienced such anevent. This relationship can be characterized by shared features e.g.,common vendors, common security protocols, etc.). The multiplier can beused in real-time or near real-time to understand a portfolio's risklevel and various steps can be enabled to reduce that risk.

The machine learning model operates to correlate a portfolio's risk ofexperiencing an adverse cybersecurity event. For example, consider thescenario where a company experiences a data breach. According toembodiments, in such case, data feeds of real-time reports on databreaches are analyzed, cybersecurity features most relevant to recentbreach scenarios are identified, and a probability of a “catastrophicbreach” occurring for one or more companies in the portfolio ispredicted based on the prevalence of the identified cybersecurityfeatures. Users are informed of the principal cybersecurity featuresthat have been exploited in recent cybersecurity attacks and the like,and steps are enabled to mitigate the risk of those attacks on portfoliocompanies. Further, instructions or recommendations to mitigate risk canbe generated for display to the user or for automated execution bysystem components.

Embodiments also provide information and insight regarding a company'scybersecurity risk beyond tabulating individual risks associated with acompany's cybersecurity posture (e.g. open ports, weak ciphers, malwareinfections, etc.). Accordingly, embodiments are particularly effectivebecause they recognize that a portfolio of companies, while havingrelatively good tabulated cybersecurity risk scores on a per companybasis, can also have a high correlated risk of experiencing acybersecurity event. In any event, when a certain number or percentageof companies in the portfolio is at an increased risk, the portfolioitself can be considered at risk. This can be considered a correlated orsystematic risk that can be mitigated by enabling a user or executingautomated steps to optimize the portfolio's composition.

The foregoing features provide a system that quantities a risk thatmultiple companies in a portfolio will experience a loss due to acybersecurity event, and enables a user to take steps to mitigate thatrisk. This can be advantageous in a number of scenarios. For example,the inventive concepts can be utilized by a cyber insurance portfoliomanager to gain quantitative insight into the probability ofcatastrophic loss due to multiple insured entities experiencing anadverse cybersecurity event. Also, where a user manages a portfolio ofvendors (e.g., for vendor risk management), that user can assess theprobability of multiple portfolio companies experiencing an adversecybersecurity event.

FIG. 1 shows aspects of system 100, which quantifies a cybersecurityrisk level of a portfolio of companies using a risk multiplier andenables steps to reduce that risk. System 100 derives, compiles, orgenerates data sets and utilizes them to quantify a cybersecurity risklevel for one or more portfolio companies, as well as an aggregate risklevel for the portfolio itself. The quantified risk can be expressedusing a multiplier, which can be a mathematical function or operator.According to an embodiment, the breach multiplier specificallyquantities the elevated risk due to a poorly diversified portfolio,which has an excess of common features, some of which are also sharedwith breached companies. It should be appreciated that the multiplierdoes not represent only a total amount of exposure across entities in aportfolio, but also is an expression of similarity of exposures acrossentities within a portfolio. The multiplier functions as a predictivevalue of the likelihood that a cybersecurity event (e.g., a catastrophicloss) will occur with respect to portfolio companies and can be usedwith a default, initial, or otherwise “standardized” cybersecurity risklevel value based on a randomly-sampled set of companies or a set ofcompanies specified according to certain criteria) to express theportfolio's cybersecurity risk level. Further, as discussed herein,system 100 can utilize different methods to derive the feature sets usedto generate the multiplier.

Using the multiplier, system 100 executes steps, or directs a user toexecute steps, to mitigate portfolio risk within a minimal or otherwiseoptimum number of steps. For example, a user can be directed to replacecertain portfolio companies with companies not in the portfolio, whichthemselves can be randomly selected or selected according to predefinedcriteria. Also, a user can be directed to change certaininterdependencies of portfolio companies. For example, if two or moreportfolio companies use a problematic web host or share an upstreamvendor, system 100 can flag that issue in its multiplier algorithm anddirect a user to create a new portfolio composition where, e.g., the webhost is not included as a vendor. In this way, system 100 can create aportfolio of companies that have dependencies (e.g., first-degreedependencies, second-degree dependencies, and so on) that optimizes theportfolios aggregate cybersecurity risk level.

System 100 can comprise a server and/or cloud-based computing platformconfigured to execute the steps described herein. Accordingly, system100 is a particular purpose computing system designed, configured, oradapted to perform the methods described herein and can becommunicatively coupled with a number of end user devices 101 a-101 n,which can be, e.g., a computer, tablet, Smartphone, or other similar enduser computing device. Users can interact with system 100 using device101 via one or more networks, such as network 102, which itself cancomprise one or more of a local intranet, a LAN (Local Area Network), aWAN (Wide Area Network.), a virtual private network (VPN), and the like.As will be apparent to those of skill in the art, communicative couplingcan also be provided by, e.g., one or more of wireless connections, asynchronous optical network (SONET) connection, a digital Tl, TN, El E3line, Digital Data Service (DDS) connection, DSL (Digital SubscriberLine) connection, an Ethernet connection, and the like.

System 100 comprises processor 103 and memory 104, which storesinstructions for executing steps according to methods described herein.These modules may locally reside in memory 104 or in a separatelocation. Further, as will be understood by those of skill in the art, a“module” can include an application-specific integrated circuit(“ASIC”), an electronic circuit, a processor (shared, dedicated, orgroup) that executes one or more of software or firmware, acombinational logic circuit, and/or other suitable components thatprovide the described functionality.

A user can interact with system 100 at each end user station 101 using agraphical user interface (GUI) or the like, which itself can compriseone or more of dashboards, displays, notification centers, tables, andor other means to convey information relating to a portfolio, individualcompanies, cybersecurity events, risk levels, attributes, and userrecommendations and action items, and the like.

During operation of system 100, one or more attributes of companies canbe input into attribute module 105. The term “attribute” can be usedsynonymously with the term “attribute data” and each refers to datarelated to characteristics or features of an entity of interest. Theattributes can relate to certain technologies utilized by a company suchas email, website, social media, cloud services, servers, operationsystems, and data storage (including, e.g., storage of website traffic,customer profiles, etc.). Also, non-technical attributes relating to acompany can be input to attribute module 105. In some instances, it canbe useful to utilize information relating to a company's products andservices, financial history, employment characteristics, and the like.System 100 can determine what attributes to search for and use, or auser of system 100 can define or specify attributes of interest.

Attributes of a company can be collected directly from that company'snetwork using previously existing network devices or new devices placedon the network or across different networks. This allows collection ofproprietary, technical, and non-technical data relating to a company.System 100 can also gather attributes of interest for one or morecompanies by transmitting a query to each company, scraping onlineinformation from, e.g., websites, corporate filings, news sources, andpublic record databases and resources. In another embodiment, system 100can also collect data from third party commercial sources and the like.To gather attribute information and input same to attribute module 105,data can be collected using a server or cloud-based device operating oneor more software routines.

Attribute module 105 can rank or apply a weight to one or moreattributes according to their influence on cybersecurity risk level. Inan embodiment, an attribute weight is selected by an end user. Forexample, a portfolio manager working on behalf of an insurance companycan determine that certain attributes, such as a company's technologyarea, technology vendors, and geographic region are important attributesfor analyzing individual and aggregate cybersecurity risk. Accordingly,the user can assign a greater weight to such attributes.

System 100 can also determine how to weight attributes across differentindustries and the like. For example, if system 100 determines that theportfolio companies are hospitals, it can select attribute weightsdetermined to be meaningful for medical practice. In any event,attribute weights can be adjusted and/or otherwise specified by system100 or a user according to particular circumstances, preferences, andthe like.

As mentioned, system 100 can utilize a machine learning model toquantity a portfolio's cybersecurity risk. Accordingly, companyattribute information can be input to attribute module 105 during both atraining period and an analysis period. In operation, system. 100 can“learn” during a training period by, e.g., identifying patterns,categories, statistical relationships, etc., exhibited by training data.The result of the learning is then used to monitor whether new dataexhibits the same patterns, categories, statistical relationships.

In operation of system 100, attribute module 105 can assign weights tocertain attributes using information gathered during a training period.Based on attribute data relating to portfolio and/or non-portfoliocompanies analyzed during the training period, system 100 then makesinformed decisions on the importance of different attributes.Accordingly, a description of an exemplary machine learning platform ishelpful in understanding the inventive concepts described herein.

According to an embodiment, common attributes are identified and thesignificance of the identified common attributes can be expressed as aweight, ranking, prioritization, etc. By discovering patterns inhistorical and current data, machine learning can be utilized to makedecisions in real-time about which attributes are indicative of acybersecurity threat or a cybersecurity threat signature. For example,an increased likelihood of a cybersecurity threat may be discovered fromone or mote attributes even though the cybersecurity threat has not beenseen before and no signature for the cybersecurity threat existedpreviously.

According to an embodiment, an automated predictive model firstprocesses or filters raw supervised and/or unsupervised training data. Amodel can then be applied to the filtered data where, e.g., attributesor data fields corresponding to certain attributes that have noinfluence on cybersecurity risk level are eliminated, and the mostsignificant attributes are heavily weighted. A multiplier is thengenerated by leveraging the foregoing aspects of the machine learningtechniques, which itself is used to express the predicted cybersecurityrisk for the portfolio.

In an embodiment, attribute data from various data sources can beevaluated in two separate data paths: (1) a real-time processing path,and (2) a batch processing path. Preferably, the evaluation of attributedata in these two data paths occurs concurrently. The real-timeprocessing path is configured to continuously monitor and analyze theincoming attribute data (e.g., in the form of an unbounded data stream).To operate in real-time, the evaluation is performed primarily orexclusively on attribute data contemporaneously received with the databeing generated by and/or received from the data source(s). In anembodiment, the real-time processing path excludes historical data(i.e., stored data pertaining to attributes analyzed in the past) fromits evaluation. Alternatively, in an embodiment, the real-timeprocessing path excludes third-party data from the evaluation in thereal-time processing path. These example types of data that are excludedfrom the real-time path can be evaluated in the batch processing path.

Historical data and third party data may be used to create and improvethe machine learning models employed to evaluate attribute data.Practically, the amount of such historical data and/or third party datacan be potentially much larger than the real-time data stream. As such,the actual evaluation of the historical data tends to be slower.Consequently, in an embodiment, the real-time processing path does notuse either or both the historical data and third party data as inputs.In other embodiments, historical and third party data may be used asinputs but the majority of the data used for evaluation in the real-timeprocessing path still pertains to contemporaneous incoming attributedata. This is a consequence of the need to process the voluminousincoming attribute data quickly to obtain actionable information.

In the batch processing path, historical data and third-party data areprocessed optionally with the incoming real-time attribute data to,e.g., identify subtle attribute data indicative of cybersecurity risk.Batch processing may occur synchronously with real-time processing or inaccordance with a predefined schedule.

Historical data can include data from different instantiations of thereal-time data sources and may span time and geography. In someimplementations, only an abridged version of the incoming attribute datais analyzed in the real-time processing path while a more completeversion is stored as historical data. Accordingly, the historical datamay, in one or more of these implementations, include attribute datathat has more attributes than the abridged attribute data presented tothe real-time processing path.

As in the real-time data path, actionable or relevant attribute datadiscovered by the batch analyzer may be acted upon automatically or maybe presented to a user for a decision to take action. The actionultimately taken by a user can validate or invalidate conclusionsreached by the batch analyzer and may serve as a source of feedback tothe machine learning platform to improve its evaluation of subsequentlyprocessed data.

Attribute information processed by attribute module 105 can be used bycomparison module 106 to generate a degree of similarity betweencompanies-of-interest. A company of interest can be a portfolio companyor a company not in a portfolio. For example, a company that experienceda cybersecurity event during a certain time period may be of interest.While the company that experienced the cybersecurity event may or maynot be in a given portfolio, its attributes can be compared to companiesin a portfolio, which are also companies-of-interest.

Also, it may be of interest to determine how many portfolio companieshave attributes common to a company that experienced a cybersecurityevent during a time period. If several portfolio companies shareattributes with a company that experienced a cybersecurity event, it canbe inferred that an occurrence of the cybersecurity event is more likelyto occur at a portfolio company. This is exacerbated when there areseveral attributes common to the portfolio companies and/or the sharedattributes are heavily weighted, i.e., assigned a greater weight basedon their indication of an occurrence of a cybersecurity event.

The degree of similarity can be expressed in terms of a number ofattributes common to two or more companies and/or the n-degrees ofdependency between the attributes (and, therefore, the companies).Accordingly, comparison module 106 compares the attributes collected byattribute module 105 to determine a number of attributes common to thecompanies-of-interest and their degrees of dependencies. According todifferent embodiments, attribute module 105 and/or comparison module 106filter and otherwise process attributes and comparison data by, e.g.,assigning weights to attributes or set of attributes and the like.

In an embodiment, comparison module 106 generates a similarity scorebetween companies-of-interest. The similarity score represents howsimilar a group of entities is to one another in view of (1) the numberof attributes shared by companies, (2) the weight or relevance of theshared attributes, and (3) the degree of mutuality of the sharedattributes.

The comparison or similarity data processed by comparison module 106 canbe used by multiplier module 107 to generate a cybersecurity riskmultiplier for a portfolio. The multiplier is a mathematical function oroperator used to express the probability that a portfolio willexperience a significant cybersecurity risk event.

Cybersecurity Risk Level Module 108 quantifies a portfolio'scybersecurity risk level based on the multiplier generated by multipliermodule 107. That is, Cybersecurity Risk Level Module 108 generates acybersecurity risk level for the portfolio of companies, which can beexpressed as a function of the multiplier generated by multipliergenerator module 107. The portfolio cybersecurity risk level can berepresented as a fraction, a decimal, a percentage, and/or a normalizednumber in a range defined by a user or otherwise predetermined.

Utilizing action module 109, the portfolio cybersecurity risk level canbe displayed by a graphical user interface at any end user station 101.In some embodiments, the cybersecurity risk level can be represented asa graph that illustrates the correlation among portfolio companies, aswell as portfolio companies and non-portfolio companies. Companies canbe graphically connected based on their number of shared attributes, thetype or weight of shared attributes, and the degree of mutuality of theattributes.

As discussed herein, output of Cybersecurity Risk Level Module 108 canbe utilized by action module 109 to generate steps that, if executed,will change the portfolio's cybersecurity risk level. In response tocalculating a portfolio Cybersecurity Risk Level (CRL), action module109 can be executed to provide the end user with some type of actionablefeedback. For example, action module 109 can provide the end user withone or more actions that, if performed, will improve the cybersecurityrisk level of the portfolio.

In one example, action module 109 can automatically identify attributesthat, if changed, would affect the portfolio's cybersecurity risk level.For example, if high risk companies utilize service providers that use aparticular CDN, action module 109 can output a recommendation thatremoving companies which use such same service providers will reduceportfolio risk level.

Therefore, an embodiment of system 100 can automatically provide therisk level generated by Cybersecurity Risk Level Module 108, expressedas a function of the multiplier generated by module 107, or otherinformation to an end user, who can utilize that information to reduceportfolio risk level. If, for example, a new company is considered forinclusion in the portfolio, it may be unacceptable for inclusion if itsattributes are high risk or otherwise similar to high risk companies.

Action module 109 can also identify attributes that are problematic ornegatively impact portfolio cybersecurity risk level. For example,action module 109 can identify vendors, such as web service providersand cloud service providers as particularly problematic attributes. Insome embodiments, action module 109 can also identify networkparameters, such as firewall policies and the like, as problematic.Prompting the user to modify problematic shared attributes will likelydecrease the cybersecurity risk level. Further, action module 109 canalso determine key variables that, if changed, would negatively impactcybersecurity risk level, and accordingly, identify these variables tothe end user as desirable.

User actions that can be taken in response to cybersecurity risk levelinformation also includes replacing one or more portfolio companies withone or more companies that do not share problematic attributes.Likewise, an action item can require that a user add a new company tothe portfolio that is determined to include positive attributes (i.e.,attributes indicative of low cybersecurity risk), such as securitypersonnel, strong information technology infrastructure and protocols,and the like. In one example, action module 109 provides an attributeprofile of a company that, if added to the portfolio, would sufficientlyreduce the portfolio cybersecurity risk level.

System 100 can also update portfolio cybersecurity risk level based onfeedback received at module 110 from an end user. For example, if a userwants to determine what effect adding a proposed company to theportfolio will have on its current cybersecurity risk level, a profileof selected attributes of the proposed company can be input to system100 via feedback module 110. Selected attributes of the proposed companyare then utilized by system 100 to compile an updated (albeithypothetical) portfolio cybersecurity risk level, which can be displayedto the user. Feedback module 110 can received feedback from a user orfeedback automatically generated by components of system 100, such asdevices 101.

Further, under different scenarios, the difference between a predictedcybersecurity risk level and a previous cybersecurity risk level can becompared to a threshold. In an embodiment, system 100 compares thepredicted cybersecurity risk level change to a threshold to determine ifinclusion of a proposed company in the portfolio is justified. There maybe instances where a net change in cybersecurity risk level is requiredby system parameters and/or user requirements before a portfolio changeis recommended.

System 100 can further indicate to a user why a portfolio cybersecurityrisk level changes in a particular way or by a particular amount. Thatis, system 100 can analyze underlying system data and its impact oncybersecurity risk level. Accordingly, system 100 can construct aportfolio using data gathered from an analysis of variables for one ormore companies.

For example, system 100 can generate a report that informs a user aboutthe number and type of companies to include in a portfolio to satisfy acertain cybersecurity risk level. The generated report can indicate thata portfolio manager should include a certain percentage of clients in afirst technology sector, a second technology sector, and so on. Thesesectors can be determined by comparing attributes of various companiesacross sectors that yield an acceptable portfolio cybersecurity risklevel.

FIG. 2 shows a flow chart of steps performed to quantify a cybersecurityrisk level of a portfolio of companies using a risk multiplier andenable steps to reduce that risk. The steps shown in FIG. 2 can beexecuted by a system for reducing a cybersecurity risk level of aportfolio of companies using a risk multiplier, such as system 100 shownin FIG. 1. The steps can be performed by processing logic that maycomprise hardware (e.g., circuitry, dedicated logic, etc.), software(such as is run on a general purpose computer system or a dedicatedmachine), or a combination of both.

At step 201, an initial cybersecurity risk level of a portfolio ofcompanies is determined. The initial determination can be performed indifferent ways. For example, a default risk level can be assigned to theportfolio based on, e.g., statistical data obtained from randomlysampled companies. The statistical sampling can be performed byimplementing the supervised machine learning concepts discussed abovewith respect to system 100. For example, during a time period such atraining period, a default or baseline risk level can be approximated byanalyzing occurrences of cybersecurity events across a random samplingof companies. Analyzing the occurrences can involve evaluating differentattributes of companies that experience a cybersecurity event andweighting those attributes. In some instances, this can yield a moremeaningful baseline or default risk level for the portfolio ofcompanies.

The initial risk can also be determined by sampling companies over atime period that are known to have attributes common to a significantnumber of portfolio companies. For example, where a number of portfoliocompanies share a common web host, or utilize products or serviceoffered by the same vendor(s), embodiments can limit a sampling tocompanies used to approximate an initial or default risk level tocompanies that have the same attributes. As such, an initialcybersecurity risk level can be generated, at least in part, bycomparing cybersecurity data (e.g., attributes and/or their n-degreedependencies) relating companies in a portfolio of interest tocybersecurity data relating to companies in a portfolio comprisingrandomly selected companies.

Certain attributes can also be weighted according to their determinedinfluence on cybersecurity risk level. That is, the identifiedattributes that are shared by a portfolio company and a company thatexperienced a cybersecurity risk event can be weighted according totheir correlation with the occurrence of the cybersecurity risk event.Subsequently, a probability that portfolio companies sharing theidentified attributes will also experience a cybersecurity risk eventwill depend on the weights assigned to the identified common attributes.In this way, the initial cybersecurity risk level for the portfolio canhave more context, and/or can provide a more meaningful value for whichthe multiplier is applied.

The weight assigned to an attribute can depend on a degree of dependencyassociated with that attribute. As discussed in more detail below,attributes can be analyzed according to their degree of dependency on orsimilarity to one another. According to an embodiment, a first-degreeattribute can be defined as an attribute that is directly common to atleast two companies in the portfolio, a second-degree attribute can bedefined as an attribute not directly common to the at least twocompanies, but directly common to the first-degree attribute, athird-degree attribute can be defined as an attribute not directlycommon to the at least two companies or the first-degree attribute, butdirectly common to the second-degree attribute, and so on.

According to an embodiment, first-degree attributes can be assignedgreater weight than second-degree attributes, second-degree attributescan be assigned a greater weight than third-degree attributes, and soon. Recognizing not only attributes shared by companies, e.g.,first-degree attributes, but further removed commonalities such ashigher degree attributes, allows more insight into relationships betweenportfolio companies and other companies and the likelihood that acybersecurity risk event at one company will propagate to a portfoliocompany. Obviously, this provides a user with enriched information andmore degrees of freedom in executing steps to reduce portfolio risklevel. A user is not limited to replacing one company for another basedon shared attributes, but is able to select one or more companies forinclusion in a portfolio that are determined to not, e.g., utilize aproblematic or high risk vendor.

Further, the initial risk level can be based on attributes of theportfolio companies themselves. The attributes of the portfoliocompanies can be used alone, or in combination with the foregoingfeatures, to establish an initial risk level. For example, in anembodiment, certain attributes can be analyzed and a comparisonperformed to estimate how the initial risk of the portfolio likelydeviates from a randomly sampled group of companies, or a group ofcompanies that have attributes known to be common to companies in theportfolio.

The attributes themselves can be though of as “internal” to a company or“external” to a company. Examples of internal attributes include, e.g.,a host that is identified as vulnerable, a browser or operating systemdetermined to be obsolete, an incidence of malware events that exceeds athreshold during a given time period (e.g., a month or a year), a numberand type of open ports, a slow patching cadence for updating softwarewith known vulnerabilities, a cipher identified as being weak, anewly-added subdomain, inadequate use of firewalls and intrusiondetection systems, and the like. Examples of external attributes includesocial network sentiment, improper use of social media accounts, as wellas leaked passwords and the like.

The initial cybersecurity risk level can be expressed in different ways,depending on user preferences, end-use applications, and the like. In anembodiment, the initial cybersecurity risk level can be expressed as anabsolute value, or score, to be used as a reference. In otherembodiments, the initial risk level can be expressed in terms of itsrelationship to another standard or reference value. For example, theinitial value can be expressed as a percentage or the like, e.g.,0.8(x), 1.2(x), etc., where a value (x) can represent a “neutral” orotherwise accepted reference risk level.

According to an embodiment, step 201 is optional, where a standardizedvalue is used as a reference for subsequent calculations. Accordingly, asubsequently quantified risk level of a portfolio is expressed as adeviation (as determined by a multiplier) from the standardized value.The standardized value can be used as a starting point or reference inall instances.

At step 202, at least one company that experienced a cybersecurity riskevent during a certain time period is identified. The identifiedcompany, and attributes of the company, can serve as a starting pointfor determining a multiplier used to quantify the cybersecurity risklevel of the portfolio. The company can be a portfolio company, or acompany not in the portfolio, while certain of its attributes will becompared to those of portfolio companies. Also, the time period in whichthe company experienced the cybersecurity event can be all or part of atraining period, as described herein. On the other hand, the time periodcan be randomly selected or selected about a window in whichcybersecurity events occur or are thought to have occurred (e.g., a timewindow about a period in which cybersecurity events increase or peak).In any event, whether or not historical, the time period is preferablyclose enough in time to the performance of steps described herein to berelevant.

At step 203, at least one attribute that is common to the companyidentified at step 202 and at least one company in the portfolio isidentified. The identified common attributes are compared in ameaningful way to determine their correlation with cybersecurity risk.According to inventive concepts it is recognized that some attributeshave minimal impact on cybersecurity risk level, while other attributesclearly influence same. For example, the sophistication of a web servicevendor, its gross revenue, and its technology sector may stronglyinfluence cybersecurity risk level, while geographic location, state ofincorporation, number of employees may not. Accordingly, attributes thatstrongly influence cybersecurity risk will be assigned a greater weightthan those that do not.

At step 204, a degree of mutuality is generated for the attributesidentified at step 203. Notably, the inventive concepts not onlyrecognize a number and weight of attributes shared by companies, but adegree of mutuality of the shared attributes. Accordingly, embodimentsprovide greater insight to portfolio cybersecurity risk level and offersignificantly more options for a user to reduce portfolio risk level.That is, in determining risk level, a user is not confined to comparingattributes shared by two or more companies, but can also compareattributes common to companies that, while not in the portfolio,influence cybersecurity risk level of the portfolio.

By way of example, consider defining a first-degree attribute as anattribute that is directly common to at least two companies in theportfolio, a second-degree attribute as an attribute not directly commonto the at least two companies, but directly common to the first-degreeattribute, a third-degree attribute as an attribute not directly commonto the at least two companies or the first-degree attribute, but commonto the second-degree attribute, and so on. In that case, furtherconsider companies C1-C4 in a portfolio, where Vendor V1 suppliescertain functionality implemented in security software used by C1 andC2, Vendor V2 supplies the same functionality implemented in securitysoftware used by C3 and C4, and Vendor VV1 supplies web authenticationservices to Vendors V1 and V2. In this example, Vendor V1 (or theservice it provides) is a first-degree attribute for Companies C1 andC2, while Vendor V2 (or the service it provides) is a first-degreeattribute for Companies C3 and C4. With respect to companies C1-C4,Vendor VV1 is a second-degree attribute where companies C1 and C2receive the functionality implemented their security software from avendor different than companies C3 and C4, but Vendors V1 and V2, andtherefore, indirectly, companies C1-C4 share the same web authenticationfeatures supplied by Vendor VV1. It could also be said that Vendor VV1is a first-degree attribute of Vendors V1 and V2.

At step 205, a cybersecurity risk multiplier is generated. Themultiplier is a mathematical function or operator used to express theportfolio's cybersecurity risk level. The multiplier can be a factorused to arrive at a mathematical product, or can be expressed as a morecomplex function or operator comprising, e.g., logarithmic or exponentcomponents. Further, according to an embodiment, the multiplier can bean operator capable of showing a rate of change or gradient in aportfolio's cybersecurity risk level with respect to time, portfoliocomposition, and other factors. In this way, the multiplier can beutilized to see what factors create the greatest change or most heavilyinfluence portfolio risk level. Such factors will be different acrossportfolios, and as such, the multiplier can comprise differentcontributions different embodiments to more clearly track a risk levelfor any given portfolio.

According to an embodiment, the multiplier represents a similaritybetween portfolio companies and companies that experienced acybersecurity event within a predefined feature space (where the featurespace is defined by a supervised learning model) that is scaled and canbe measured again at a benchmark. The multiplier can be based on one ormore of the number of portfolio companies having attributes common to acompany that experienced a cybersecurity risk event, the number of theshared attributes themselves, the generated weight assigned to theshared attributes, and the degrees of dependency of the sharedattributes.

Further, the multiplier is generated from data gathered using machinelearning techniques discussed herein. A statistical model can be trainedby first estimating a degree of similarity between companies in randomlycomposed portfolios and analyzing the number of K identified ordiscovered cybersecurity events in those portfolios over a period oftime. The K identified or discovered cybersecurity events can be acombination of significant cybersecurity events and dependencies, whereK=0, 1, 2, . . . n. Then, a distribution of the portfolio of interestand the number of identified cybersecurity events for the randomlycomposed portfolios are used to fit a Bayesian model of likelihood ofmultiple cybersecurity events.

In other words, to generate the multiplier, machine learning techniquesare used to analyze both a portfolio of interest and companies thatexperienced cybersecurity event in a certain time period (e.g., the pastsix (6) months). From this, an estimate of the risk that multiplecompanies will experience a cybersecurity event is generated. Accordingto an embodiment, the value of the multiplier is constrained to varybetween 0 and 2(x), where 1(x) is the probability that a randomlycomposed portfolio will experience a cybersecurity event.

According to an embodiment, the multiplier can be used to express acybersecurity risk level where:CB_PROBABILITY (D-SCORE, N)=CATASTROPHIC_BREACH_PROBABILITY (D-SCORE,N)=PROBABILITY (NUMBER_OF_BREACH>1|D-SCORE, N),”  (1)MULTIPLIER (D-SCORE, N)=CB_PROBABILITY (D-SCORE, N)/CB_PROBABILITY(D-SCORE=BENCHMARK, N),  (2)where:

-   -   “CB_PROBABILITY” represents the probability that a portfolio of        interest will experience a cybersecurity risk event, and is a        function of “D-SCORE,” which is a quantitative measure of the        diversification level of the portfolio of interest within the        predefined feature space;    -   “N” represents the number of companies in the portfolio of        interest;    -   “PROBABILITY (D-SCORE)” represents a probability density        function of the quantitative measure of diversification level of        the portfolio of interest (D-SCORE), which is estimated by        sampling randomly generated portfolios. According to one        embodiment, this conditional probability is estimated by fitting        a Kernel density model on the d-scores of randomly generated        portfolios;    -   “PROBABILITY (NUMBER_OF_BREACH>1|D-SCORE, N)” represents a        probability of a number of breach events occurring in the        portfolio of interest, which is conditioned on the quantitative        measure of diversification level of the portfolio of interest        (D-SCORE).    -   “PROBABILITY (NUMBER_OF_BREACH>1|D-SCORE, N)” is proportional to        PROBABILITY (D-SCORE|NUMBER_OF_BREACH>1, N)*PROBABILITY        (NUMBER_OF_BREACH>1, N)    -   “PROBABILITY (D-SCORE|NUMBER_OF_BREACH>1)” represents a        probability of the quantitative measure of diversification level        of the portfolio of interest (D-SCORE), which is conditioned on        a number of breach events occurring in the portfolio of        interest. According to one embodiment, this conditional        probability is estimated by fitting a Kernel density model on        the d-scores of randomly generated portfolios;    -   “PROBABILITY (NUMBER_OF_BREACH, N)” represents a joint        probability of the number of breaches in a portfolio of size N.        According to one embodiment, this probability follows a binomial        distribution as binomial (N,p), where p=a number of companies        experiencing a cybersecurity event divided by N;    -   “NUMBER_OF_BREACH” represents the number of vendors that        experience a cyber incident within a pre-defined time interval;    -   “MULTIPLIER” represents Breach Multiplier;    -   “CB_PROBABILITY (D-SCORE=BENCHMARK, N) represents a joint        probability of D-SCORE and portfolio size N; and    -   “BENCHMARK” is the mean of D-SCORE for a set of randomly        selected portfolios.

The model used to generate the multiplier can be validated using atraining model. During a training period, a weight for each attribute,attribute type, cybersecurity event, or cybersecurity event type can begenerated. The most heavily weighted attributes and/or events can beselected by weight (e.g., the top ten (10) percent). A sampling pool canthen be obtained by querying a different number of common attributesand/or event types. A portfolio can then be composed by randomlyselecting from the sampling pool. The model can be trained and testedusing portfolios of different sizes, e.g., randomly selected between asize of ten (10) to one hundred (100) companies.

At step 206, a portfolio cybersecurity risk level is generated as afunction of the multiplier generated at step 205. Practically, thegenerated portfolio cybersecurity risk corresponds to a probability thata cybersecurity risk event will occur with respect to one or moreportfolio companies, and depends on the number of shared attributespreviously identified and their degrees of dependency. In other words,the generated portfolio cybersecurity risk level represents thelikelihood one or more companies in a portfolio will experience acybersecurity event in view of its degree of similarity to a company orcompanies that experienced such an event. The degree of similarity isdirectly related to the shared attributes, the weight of the attributes,and degrees of mutuality of the shared attributes, as discussed herein.Again, as mentioned above, some attributes can have minimal or no impacton the cybersecurity risk level, and such variables may be assigned acorrespondingly small weight. If, for example, a shared attribute is notincluded in the risk level calculation by the end user the variable hasno impact on the portfolio cybersecurity risk level.

The portfolio cybersecurity risk level can be expressed as an absolutevalue or as a relative value. For example, using the multipliergenerated at step 205, the portfolio cybersecurity risk level generatedat step 206 can be thought of as a mathematical product of, e.g., (1)the multiplier, and (2) an initial portfolio risk level or some otherdefault or standardized value. As discussed, the initial portfolio risklevel can be generated by applying a certain value to the portfolioitself, or can be based upon, e.g., sampling companies over a timeperiod—whether the sampling is random or constrained to a particular setof companies that satisfy certain criteria. In any event, the machinelearning technique discussed herein can be utilized to provide abaseline or standard value, or otherwise assign an initial portfoliorisk level.

At step 207, a tool is enabled for reducing the portfolio'scybersecurity risk level. For example, if a portfolio is determined tohave a high multiplier, and as a result, an increased cybersecurity risklevel, portfolio companies that use problematic vendors can beinvestigated and/or replaced. Consistent with the foregoing description,enabling a tool to reduce a portfolio's cybersecurity risk level mayinvolve displaying variable data fields and/or tools that allow a userto implement a number of changes to reduce the risk level. As anexample, an interactive tool can be displayed to a user that comprises alist or series of available actions the user can execute to reduce therisk level. As mentioned herein, the actions can include removing acompany from the portfolio, as well as replacing it with one or morecompanies. The one or more replacement companies can be considered lessproblematic or less risky than the replaced company insomuch as thereplacement companies may not share one or more attributes with acompany that experience a cybersecurity risk event. On the other hand,the replacement companies can be randomly selected, or selected based ontheir similarity (or shared attributes) with other portfolio companiesthat are determined to be less risky. Further, when the inventiveconcepts are used for vendor risk management, portfolio companies can beinstructed to remediate shared issues (e.g. open ports, etc.) as amechanism for reducing risk.

In some instances, a user may wish to remove one or more problematic orrisky companies, thereby reducing the size of the portfolio andconstraining it to companies that satisfy certain criteria or otherwiseare determined to not have shared attributes or dependency (again, ofany n-degree) with a company that experienced a cybersecurity riskevent. By removing one or more companies that are at an increased riskfrom the portfolio, the aggregate risk level for the portfolioadvantageously decreases.

A user can also view the effects of its actions have on the portfolio'srisk level. After a user executes one or more steps enabled at step 207,an updated or refined portfolio risk level can be generated anddisplayed to the user along with a new set of enabled steps forexecution. This can be thought of as a feedback loop operating withfeedback input by the user to the system.

At step 208, feedback is received and further action is taken withrespect to the generated portfolio cybersecurity risk level. Thefeedback can be received as an automated response generated by thesystem, or as a manually-entered response from a user. For example,feedback can be received from an individual, such as a portfoliomanager, that is manually entered at one or more end user stations. Onthe other hand, the feedback can be received from a network or systemdevice that generates the feedback. For example, an end user softwareroutine can receive the output, compare the output to a determinedthreshold or series of metrics, and respond with feedback to yield anupdated input that better conforms to the threshold or metrics. The enduser software routine may require that a portfolio cybersecurity risklevel be under a certain number and, if that condition is not satisfied,may transmit a proposed company profile for consideration in theportfolio. Should that proposed company's profile be considered andsufficient lower the portfolio cybersecurity risk level, the output maybe accepted and passed along to other system companies for furtheranalysis, and the like.

In view of the foregoing, feedback can be expressed in various forms,such as a suggestion, specifically required action(s), option, orreport. In any event, an object can be to compare the portfoliocybersecurity risk level to a benchmark or other threshold over someperiod of time. In this way, a portfolio manager (employed by, e.g., aninsurance company) can track the portfolio's aggregated cybersecurityrisk level across an adjustable time frame. Doing so enables longer termanalysis of the portfolio's risk level over time, and the manager'sexposure in view of same. This, of course, allows a manager to makemeaningful business decisions regarding the composition of theportfolio, and cast, willingness, and ability to underwrite theportfolio.

FIGS. 3A and 3B graphically illustrate data provided by an embodimentwith respect to randomly composed portfolios having between twenty (20)and one hundred and fifty (150) companies. The data illustrates trendsderived from a comparison between portfolio companies and companies thatexperienced a cybersecurity event Attributes of interest included thirdparty vendors and industry type, and the portfolios were composed byenforcing a number of attributes in the portfolio. As seen in FIG. 3A,the normalized d-score decreases generally in linear fashion with anincrease in the number of shared attributes. FIG. 3B shows that thelikelihood of a company experiencing a cybersecurity event increases asthe number of shared attributes increases.

FIG. 4A illustrates a probability density function of multiplier valuesfor positive portfolio B>1 vs. negative portfolio B≤1, in which B is thenumber cybersecurity events over a two (2) year time period. FIG. 4Billustrates a probability density function of multiplier values forpositive portfolio B>1 vs. negative portfolio B≤1, in which B is thenumber of cybersecurity events over a one (1) year time period. As seen,with respect to performance for a randomly composed portfolio, recallrate is 70% and accuracy rate is 68%.

FIG. 5 illustrates multiplier values as a function of average score. Asseen, portfolios with more common attributes tend to have lower totalscores. An entity with a high total score has lower cybersecurity riskthan an entity with a low total score. According to FIG. 5, statisticalmultiplier values are partially correlated with total score. As themultiplier also depends on the mutuality between companies, themultiplier detects a portfolio of good total score with lowdiversification, as marked by the circle.

FIG. 6A is a heat map of cybersecurity attributes of a portfoliocomprised of companies that have a high multiplier value and a low totalscore and FIG. 6B [INSERT] is heat map of cybersecurity attributes ofportfolio comprised of companies that have a low multiplier value and ahigh total score. As seen, certain attributes are indicative of clustersof companies most likely to experience a cybersecurity risk event.

FIG. 7 shows the probability density functions of multiplier values fora different number of common attributes. In other words, FIG. 7 showshow multiplier values map to categorical levels of numbers of sharedattributes among companies in a portfolio.

Certain units described in this specification have been labeled asmodules in order to more particularly emphasize their implementationindependence. A module is “[a] self-contained hardware or softwarecomponent that interacts with a larger system.” Alan Freedman, “TheComputer Glossary” 268 (8th ed. 1998). A module may comprise a machine-or machines-executable instructions. For example, a module may beimplemented as a hardware circuit comprising custom VLSI circuits orgate arrays, off-the-shelf semiconductors such as logic chips,transistors, or other discrete components. A module may also beimplemented in programmable hardware devices such as field programmablegate arrays, programmable array logic, programmable logic devices or thelike.

Modules may also include software-defined units or instructions, thatwhen executed by a processing machine or device, transform data storedon a data storage device from a first state to a second state. Anidentified module of executable code may, for example, comprise one ormore physical or logical blocks of computer instructions that may beorganized as an object, procedure, or function. Nevertheless, theexecutables of an identified module need not be physically locatedtogether, but may comprise disparate instructions stored in differentlocations that, when joined logically together, comprise the module, andwhen executed by the processor, achieve the stated data transformation.A module of executable code may be a single instruction, or manyinstructions, and may even be distributed over several different codesegments, among different programs, and/or across several memorydevices. Similarly, operational data may be identified and illustratedherein within modules, and may be embodied in any suitable form andorganized within any suitable type of data structure. The operationaldata may be collected as a single data set, or may be distributed overdifferent locations including over different storage devices.

In the foregoing description, numerous specific details are provided,such as examples of programming, software modules, user selections,network transactions, database queries, database structures, hardwaremodules, hardware circuits, hardware chips, etc., to provide a thoroughunderstanding of the present embodiments. One skilled in the relevantart will recognize, however, that the disclosure may be practicedwithout one or more of the specific details, or with other methods,components, materials, and so forth. In other instances, well-knownstructures, materials, or operations are not shown or described indetail to avoid obscuring aspects of the disclosure.

In the following description, numerous details are set forth to providea thorough understanding of the present invention. It will be apparent,however, to one skilled in the art, that the present invention may bepracticed without these specific details. In other instances, well-knownstructures and devices are shown in block diagram form, rather than indetail, in order to avoid obscuring the present invention.

Some portions of the detailed descriptions that follow are presented interms of algorithms and symbolic representations of operations on databits within a computer memory. These algorithmic descriptions andrepresentations are the means used by those skilled in the dataprocessing arts to most effectively convey the substance of their workto others skilled in the art. An algorithm is here, and generally,conceived to be a self-consistent sequence of steps leading to a desiredresult. The steps are those requiring physical manipulations of physicalquantities. Usually, though not necessarily, these quantities take theform of electrical or magnetic signals capable of being stored,transferred, combined, compared, and otherwise manipulated. It hasproven convenient at times, principally for reasons of common usage, torefer to these signals as bits, values, elements, symbols, characters,terms, numbers, or the like.

It should be borne in mind, however, that all of these and similar termsare to be associated with the appropriate physical quantities and aremerely convenient labels applied to these quantities. Unlessspecifically stated otherwise as apparent from the following discussion,it is appreciated that throughout the description, discussions utilizingterms such as “processing” or “computing” or “calculating” or“determining” or “displaying” or the like, refer to the action andprocesses of a computer system, or similar electronic computing device,that manipulates and transforms data represented as physical(electronic) quantities within the computer system's registers andmemories into other data similarly represented as physical quantitieswithin the computer system memories or registers or other suchinformation storage, transmission or display devices.

The present invention also relates to apparatus for performing theoperations herein. This apparatus may be specially constructed for therequired purposes, or it may comprise a general purpose computerselectively activated or reconfigured by a computer program stored inthe computer. Such a computer program may be stored in a computerreadable storage medium, such as, but is not limited to, any type ofdisk including floppy disks, optical disks, CD-ROMs, andmagnetic-optical disks, read-only memories (ROMs), random accessmemories (RAMS), EPROMs, EEPROMs, magnetic or optical cards, or any typeof media suitable for storing electronic instructions, and each coupledto a computer system bus.

The algorithms and displays presented herein are not inherently relatedto any particular computer or other apparatus. Various general purposesystems may be used with programs in accordance with the teachingsherein, or it may prove convenient to construct more specializedapparatus to perform the required method steps. The required structurefor a variety of these systems will appear from the description below.In addition, the present invention is not described with reference toany particular programming language. It will be appreciated that avariety of programming languages may be used to implement the teachingsof the invention as described herein.

A machine-readable medium includes any mechanism for storing ortransmitting information in a form readable by a machine (e.g., acomputer). For example, a machine-readable medium includes read onlymemory (“ROM”); random access memory (“RAM”); magnetic disk storagemedia; optical storage media; flash memory devices; electrical, optical,acoustical or other form of propagated signals (e.g., carrier waves,infrared signals, digital signals, etc.).

Although the present invention and its advantages have been described indetail, it should be understood that various changes, substitutions andalterations can be made herein without departing from the spirit andscope of the invention as defined by the appended claims. Moreover, thescope of the present application is not intended to be limited to theparticular embodiments of the process, machine, manufacture, compositionof matter, means, methods, and steps described in the specification. Asone of ordinary skill in the art will readily appreciate from thedisclosure of the present invention, processes, machines, manufacture,compositions of matter, means, methods, or steps, presently existing orlater to be developed that perform substantially the same function orachieve substantially the same result as the corresponding embodimentsdescribed herein may be utilized according to the present invention.Accordingly, the appended claims are intended to include within theirscope such processes, machines, manufacture, compositions of matter,means, methods, or steps. Moreover, the scope of the present applicationis not intended to be limited to the particular embodiments of theprocess, machine, manufacture, composition of matter, means, methods,and steps described in the specification.

What is claimed is:
 1. An interactive tool improves for improving acybersecurity risk level of a portfolio of companies, the interactivetool comprising: a memory; and one or more processors communicativelycoupled to the memory, where the one or more processors are configuredto: identify: at least one company that experienced a cybersecurity riskevent during a certain time period; at least one attribute common to theat least one identified company that experienced the cybersecurity riskevent and a plurality of companies in the portfolio of companies, and adegree of mutuality of the at least one attributes; determine aprobability that another cybersecurity risk event will occur withrespect to the plurality of companies in the portfolio of companies,where the probability depends on: the number of identified commonattributes, and degrees of mutuality of the number of identifiedattributes; generate, from the determined probability, a cybersecurityrisk multiplier for the portfolio of companies; generate a refinedcybersecurity risk level that is a function of an initial cybersecurityrisk level and the cybersecurity risk multiplier; display, to a user:the refined cybersecurity risk level for the portfolio of companies; andexecute at least one action to improve the refined cybersecurity risklevel in response to a user selection.
 2. The interactive tool of claim1, where the action to improve the refined cybersecurity risk levelcomprises: an action to remove a company from the portfolio ofcompanies; and an action to replace the removed company with a newcompany, where the new company was not previously included in theportfolio of companies.
 3. The interactive tool of claim 1 where therefined cybersecurity risk level is expressed as a product of theinitial cybersecurity risk level and the cybersecurity risk multiplier.4. A method for utilizing an interactive tool to dynamically improve acybersecurity risk level of a portfolio of companies, the methodcomprising: identifying at least one company that experienced acybersecurity risk event during a certain time period: identifying; atleast one attribute common to the at least one identified company thatexperienced the cybersecurity risk event and a plurality of companies inthe portfolio of companies, and a degree of mutuality of the at leastone attributes; determining a probability that another cybersecurityrisk event will occur with respect to the plurality of companies in theportfolio of companies, where the probability depends on: the number ofidentified common attributes, and degrees of mutuality of the number ofidentified attributes; generating, front the determined probability, acybersecurity risk multiplier for the portfolio of companies: generatinga refilled c cybersecurity risk level that is a function of an initialcybersecurity risk level and the cybersecurity risk multiplier;displaying via an interactive tool to a user; the refined cybersecurityrisk level for the portfolio of companies; and executing at least oneaction to improve the refined cybersecurity risk level in response to auser selection.
 5. The method of claim 4, where the at least one actionto improve the refined cybersecurity risk level comprise: removing acompany from the portfolio of companies; replacing the removed companywith a new company, where the new company was not previously included inthe portfolio of companies; and identifying a critical cybersecurityattribute and remove the identified critical cybersecurity attributefrom the portfolio of companies.
 6. The method of claim 4, where therefined cybersecurity risk level is expressed as a product of theinitial cybersecurity risk level and the cybersecurity risk multiplier.7. The method of claim 4, where the at least one identified company thatexperienced a cybersecurity risk event during the certain time period isin the portfolio of companies.
 8. The method of claim 7, where thecertain time period is historical.
 9. The method of claim 4, where theat least one identified company that experienced a cybersecurity riskevent during the certain time period is not in the portfolio ofcompanies.
 10. The method of claim 9, where the certain time period ishistorical.
 11. The method of claim 4, where the initial cybersecurityrisk level is generated, at least in part, from cybersecurity datarelating to at least one company in the portfolio of companies duringthe certain time period.
 12. The method of claim 4, where the initialcybersecurity risk level is generated, at least in part, by comparingattributes indicative of cybersecurity risk level of companies in theportfolio of companies to the attributes indicative of cybersecurityrisk level of companies in another portfolio of companies comprisingrandomly selected companies.
 13. The method of claim 4, where theidentified common attributes are weighted according to their correlationwith an incidence of a cybersecurity risk event, and the determinedprobability further depends on the weights of the identified commonattributes.
 14. The method of claim 4, where the identified commonattributes comprise an internal attribute that is shared by companies inthe portfolio of companies.
 15. The method of claim 14, where theinternal attribute comprises one or more of: vulnerable host, obsoleteuser agent, number of new malware events, open ports, slow patchingcadence, and inadequate use of firewalls and inadequate use of intrusiondetection system.
 16. The method of claim 4, where the identified commonattributes comprise an external attribute that is shared by companies inthe portfolio of companies and one or more companies not in theportfolio of companies.
 17. The method of claim 16, where the externalattribute comprises one or more of: inadequate use of social mediaaccounts, lost or stolen passwords, and inadequate social networksentiment.
 18. The method of claim 4, where the identified commonattributes comprises a first-degree common attribute, and where thefirst-degree common attribute comprises at least one vendor that iscommon to two or more companies in the portfolio of companies.
 19. Themethod of claim 4, where the identified common attributes comprises asecond-degree common attribute, and where the second-degree commonattribute comprises at least one vendor that is common to two or morevendors, where the two or more vendors are common to two or morecompanies in the portfolio of companies.
 20. A non-transitorycomputer-readable storage medium storing instructions that, whenexecuted by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors toperform operations to improve a cybersecurity risk level of a portfolioof companies, the operations comprising: identifying at least onecompany that experienced a cybersecurity risk event during a certaintime period; identifying: at least one attribute common to the at leastone identified company that experienced the cybersecurity risk event anda plurality of companies in the portfolio of companies, and a degree ofmutuality of the at least one attributes; determining a probability thatanother cybersecurity risk event will occur with respect to theplurality of companies in the portfolio of companies, where theprobability depends on: the number of identified common attributes, anddegrees of mutuality of the number of identified attributes; generating,from the determined probability, a cybersecurity risk multiplier for theportfolio of companies; generating a refined cybersecurity risk levelthat is a function of an initial cybersecurity risk level and thecybersecurity risk multiplier; displaying, to a user, an interactivetool that enables the user to view: the refined cybersecurity risk levelfor the portfolio of companies; and executing at least one action toimprove the refined cybersecurity risk level.